Spitfire Mk3 Ashley Hardtop fitting help

[ElliotG]

Hi all,

 

My first post since joining TSSC about a year and a half ago!

I'm soon to start a full rebuild as a first car project for my son, and have spent the last few months acquiring parts, one of which is an Ashley Hardtop as shown in the pics. It doesn't have any fittings with it, so rather than jump straight in and bodge something I thought it best to see if anyone has any knowledge about how they are supposed to attach.

It looks like it bolts at the front same as the standard hardtop, just would love to see some pics or diagrams of the other fittings.

 

Hope you can help,

Elliot

 

[Pete Lewis]

There, s some brackets and studding to pull it down at the B post area

 

expect it is diy fabrication now.

 

pete

[Stewart Vacher]

Hi Elliot,

 

I had an Ashley hardtop on  my Spitfire back in the late 70's and used it in the winter to keep the water out but went back to the rag top in the summer.

Personally I think it look really sporty and I was always getting attention from people wanting to know what car it was. There are still a few around that I have spotted at Triumph events. Suzie Singleton did an article in The Courier a year or two ago about a variety of different hardtop fitted to spitfires which included the 'Ashley' and had some pictures plus the firms sales advert for the top.

 

Pete was right about small brackets that fitted on the B post, these should be fairly easy to knock up. But more importantly from your pictures you appear to be missing the parcel shelf. This was made of fibreglass and had  a built in pipe taking the petrol from the hardtop side filler to the original filler in the centre of the body above the boot area. This was always a bit of a problem as the 'fall' on the pipe was very slight resulting in a very slow filling up. Also you had to make sure the car was not sloping towards the filler side, or it wouldn't fill at all! I believe the company moved the position to the centre of the top below the back window on later versions.

 

Hope this of some help.

Regards

Stewart

[Stupps]

Haven't dealt with them but I came across this site when googling Ashley hardtops: http://www.ashleygt.co.uk/

 

They might be able to assist, as they appear to be fabricating tops (and other panels).